I’ve been using Google Sheets for a while now mainly because it’s free and I can work on my spreadsheets from anywhere. But I keep hearing people say Excel is way better for advanced stuff. What exactly makes Excel superior from a technical standpoint? Are there certain functions or features that Excel handles much better than Sheets? I’m also curious about the interface - do most people find Excel’s UI more user-friendly and why? I want to understand what I might be missing by sticking with Sheets instead of switching to Excel for more complex projects.
Excel’s keyboard shortcuts blow Google Sheets out of the water for power users. The whole program feels way snappier when you’re crunching heavy calculations. Excel also crushes it with external data - connecting to databases, importing files, refreshing sources. It just works more reliably. The formula auditing tools are amazing too. You get visual tracers that show exactly how your formulas connect, which is perfect for debugging messy spreadsheets. Google Sheets starts choking when you’ve got multiple sheets with complex dependencies, but Excel keeps humming along even with dozens of interconnected sheets.
totally agree! excel’s array formulas really take it to another level. and yeah, data validation is soooo much better; dropdowns just work smoother. also, i feel like conditional formatting in excel is way more reliable, sheets struggles when you’re dealing with complex stuff.
Excel’s VBA macros blow Google Sheets’ Apps Script out of the water. Complex automation runs way faster in Excel, especially with massive datasets. I’ve seen Excel handle thousands of rows while Sheets chokes on heavy calculations - Excel just manages memory better. The pivot tables are leagues ahead too. Don’t get me started on the charting and conditional formatting - Excel gives you so much more control. For financial modeling or stats work, Excel’s solver and analysis toolpak are game-changers that Sheets can’t touch. Plus you can work offline, which is huge when you’re deep in complex stuff and don’t want to worry about your connection dropping.
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